Barnes & Noble’s rekindled romance with Wall Street, now entering its tenth trading day, continues apace. Their stock registered resilient gains again yesterday even as the overall market suffered, and it is rising again today, passing the $18 mark in early trading, as another analyst–Gary Balter at Credit Suisse–has upgraded revenue estimates and raised his price target for the stock to $20 a share. Beyond BN’s own guidance that the Nook business will comprise $1.8 billion in the current fiscal year, Credit Suisse projects that segment will grow to $2.25 billion in the following year, and $2.813 billion the year […]
Archives for November 2011
Wimpy Kid Boasts 25 Percent Better Opening Than A Year Ago
Abrams says that Jeff Kinney’s DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: Cabin Fever, the sixth book in the series, sold “more than one million copies its first week on sale.” Abrams says that is a 25 percent improvement on the first-week sale for the previous book this time a year ago. (A year ago, Abrams said the first-day sale was over 375,000 copies.) They also declare it “the number one bestselling hardcover book in the U.S. for all of the calendar year.” Though perhaps not if you count only trade outlets, since traditionally a significant portion of Kinney’s sales come through […]
Penguin Cancels Kindle Library Lending, For Now–Will Others Follow?
Overdrive announced Monday that Penguin “instructed” them to “disable ‘Get for Kindle’ functionality for all Penguin ebooks” that Overdrive supplies to libraries, in what the service calls an “abrupt change.” Penguin also told OverDrive “it is reviewing terms for library lending of their ebooks” and has suspended availability to libraries for the new ebook releases. Kindle users first started reporting the disappearance of Penguin titles from participating libraries on Saturday. Penguin’s own statement was more coy than OverDrive’s, insisting that “due to new concerns about the security of our digital editions, we find it necessary to delay the availability of […]
Bookselling: Former Davis-Kidd Store Revived Under New Name; Atlantic Books Shuts Down; and More
Booksellers at Laurelwood opened in Memphis, TN over the weekend in a location formerly occupied by Davis-Kidd, a subsidiary of the now-bankrupt Joseph-Beth Booksellers. Neil van Uum, Joseph-Beth’s owner when the company went into bankruptcy, bought the Davis-Kidd store (but not the name) during a liquidation auction with the help of Laurelwood Shopping Center landlord Tom Prewitt, and invested an additional $500,000 in renovating and reorganizing the space, according to the Memphis Commercial-Appeal. The children’s section is now 50 percent larger, and the store employs 45 staffers. Bartleby’s Books in Wilmington, VT, which had been severely damaged by flooding during […]
People, Etc.
John Hawkins, who owned and operated the literary agency John Hawkins & Associates, died November 13 at the age of 72. The cause of death was not immediately available. Hawkins joined Paul R. Reynolds Inc., established by his wife’s grandfather, in 1966, became president of the agency in 1980 and changed its name to John Hawkins & Associates in 1985. Among his current and former clients are James Clavell, Alex Haley, Gail Godwin, E. Lynn Harris, Thomas McGuane, Harry Crews and Joyce Carol Oates, who said in a statement that Hawkins “was a beloved friend to his writers, warmly sympathetic, […]
Hastings Losses Widen As It Ventures Into Digital Territory
Hastings Entertainment reported results for its third quarter early Monday morning and the losses continue to mount. The company reported a net loss of $5.5 million (or 65 cents a share), considerably larger than the $3.1 million loss reported a year ago. Overall book comps decreased 4.5 percent for the quarter, affected by “a weaker slate of titles released during the current quarter and the increasing popularity of e-readers” as well as increased promotional pricing. Unlike previous years, Hastings did not break out specific comps for new versus used book sales for the quarter. During the third quarter Hastings also […]